Delegates’ training an excellent update

Police Association delegates recently filed out of Fenwick Hall feeling overwhelmingly confident that they could better serve PASA members in need of help in the field.

They had just wound up a day-long delegates’ training course, run by PASA assistant secretary, Tom Scheffler, in late June. The course is designed to educate current delegates on matters that relate to PASA’s structure, function and services. Issues covered on the day, included:

• An overview of PASA officials and staff.
• Corporate commitments.
• Daily issues (workers’ compensation, police complaints, criminal/disciplinary, leave entitlements, roster changes, promotions/selections).
• Ongoing engagements, projects and achievements.
• PASA delegate and branch structures.
• Delegate training (skills, knowledge and aptitude, roles and responsibilities, problem-solving, workplace negotiations).
• Police award and enterprise agreements.
• Member expectations.
• Industrial relations law.
• Legal issues (supervisory discipline, minor misconduct, charges of breaching code, criminal charges or allegations).
• Members’ rights and obligations.
• Occupational health, safety and welfare.
• Equity and diversity.

Senior Constable Andy McLean, a PASA delegate for more than five years, found the course “an excellent way to update delegates on pending issues”.

“I left feeling a lot more informed and confident in tackling any problems that members may throw at me,” he said.

Most member enquiries brought to Snr Const McLean recently have related to enterprise bargaining policy. Such enquiries, he said, were “pretty straightforward” to handle, but he has had to respond to more complicated issues, such as member grievances with SAPOL management.

“Some members may feel frightened or intimidated when it comes to speaking with authority figures, and this is where I come in,” he said.

All PASA delegates’ names and postings appear in the Police Journal (page 2). Delegates are available to assist members with any workplace issues of concern.

One issue on which Mr Scheffler lectured delegates was that of the interview process which members have to undergo if they are charged with alleged breaches of regulations.

His advice to delegates was to ensure that members knew their rights and sought “help from delegates if in doubt”.

“Some members, particularly junior members, may not be taking interviews seriously or formally enough,” he said.

“Responses to questions asked may, at times, be just to appease the interviewer. Members need to understand that they are not at the mercy of the interviewer, but should answer questions with honesty and integrity. Insincere answers could have far greater implications than the original misconduct.”

Mr Scheffler insisted that interview questions should be reasonable – and lawful. “And, members should not feel obliged to attend an interview at short notice,” he said

“They can always postpone it for a later stage in favour of having a delegate present.”